Teaming up with Statoil, Litgas is trying to get more usage out of its under-used floating LNG regasification terminal

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Trying to squeeze more value out of its under-used floating LNG regasification terminal, Lithuania’s state-owned Litgas is looking to set up a joint venture with Statoil later this year to offer vessel bunkering and lorry tankering services.

Statoil said the Baltic small scale LNG market could become commercially attractive once all the relevant regulatory and corporate approvals are in place and the final investment decision taken. The parties expect it to reach between 500m m³ and 1bn m³ (regasified) by 2020. The JV would be well positioned to supply this growing market and could start up in 2017, they said 2 July.

Statoil sells up to 400,000 t/y to Litgas, the minimum required to keep it running, while the terminal’s capacity is about ten times that. However since the terminal was delivered from South Korea, the price Lithuania pays Gazprom has fallen, making the terminal’s use unprofitable.

And hopes that its neighbours Latvia and Estonia would help reduce the running costs by using the capacity have been dashed as the Russian export monopoly has been able to lower its price to them too.

The vessel will not need modifying as it can already do bunkering operations. At the moment it takes about five or six cargoes from Norway annually but it has a stack of memorandums of understanding or heads of agreement with a number of terminal operators such as Cheniere and Delfin in the US for LNG purchases.